ANGRY foster carers have threatened to go private, after their payments were slashed by up to £67 a week - at a time when the council is desperate for new recruits.

Stockport foster parents have been among the highest paid in the country since last October, when the council brought in sweetener payments to stop them signing up with private agencies.

But now the Government has urged the council to bring its rates back down in line with other local authorities.

Carers, who now get £250 a week to keep a child under seven years old, will in future receive only £183.

One disgruntled carer from the Heathbank area, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "This is a big cut for some new carers who joined after October.

"We are very angry, and there is a general feeling that we should resign.

"We don't understand it. The council would have to pay me double that, or more if I was with a private agency."

Foster carers are not represented by a union, as they are not council employees, but receive money to cover board and keep.

Viki Packman, acting assistant director of children and families at social services, defended the new structure.

She said: "We put their payments up in October last year, from £133.28 for an under seven-year-old, to £250.82.

"But that was a temporary interim payment to discourage them from going over to private agencies, who had a very aggressive advertising campaign.

"Under the new structure they will get between £41.25 and £55.78 more than the pre-October payments.

"Stockport carers are still among the highest paid in the region, and we now want to concentrate on things like helping them get NVQs, improving our flexibility to meet the needs of individual carers, and improving home support services."

And carer Debbie Barnett, 48, of Countess Street in Davenport, said carers are undecided as to what action to take.

She said: "We are split down the middle.

"Some people are aghast that the interim payment has been taken away.

"But other people see it as I do, that it was a short-term bonus, and we have got a raise this week."

Miss Packman urged carers to recognise the benefits of belonging to a large network of public sector carers.

She said: "We are desperate for foster carers. Like all other local authorities in the country we have more and more children that need to be looked after within the borough."